Coastcare Victoria Community Grants

Connected Coastal Communities: Marine Education to Inspire the Next Generation

Marine Mammal Foundation (MMF) is a world-leader in science education, educating communities in our innovative and award-winning programs providing greater understanding of Victorian coastal environments, empowering positive action for community-driven conservation. Targeting young people, our project supports opportunities for 15 Victorian schools to engage in MMF’s immersive self-guided curriculum-linked Marine Science Online Course. This project also supports the development and distribution of 1,000 MMF Marine Mammals Activity Workbooks across coastal communities to further maximise engagement. This project engages Victorian communities in unique learning experiences, inspires appreciation, fosters connection, and creates greater understanding of coastal environmental values, empowering youth-led action for conservation.

Community Education for Community Conservation

Several speakers will be invited to give presentations on the ecology and biodiversity of reefs and rockpools in the local Southern Otway region including describing safe practices when exploring marine systems. This project will provide: the public with a discounted diving and underwater photography course; a quarterly ‘BioBlitz’ communal citizen science field survey in accompaniment with the Marine Research Group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria; and the necessary equipment for our group for projects and events.

Turning the Tide for Westernport Mangroves

Mangroves sequester carbon, filter nutrients, and provide coastal protection and habitat. Westernport mangroves are amongst the world's southernmost forests and are critical to the Ramsar listed wetland area. Clearing and sedimentation have resulted in a decline in mangroves in Westernport. Unfortunately, the Westernport community's perception of mangroves is often negative, acting as a barrier to restoration. OzFish will engage the community on the importance of mangroves via one seminar, one mangrove walkthrough, one video, flyers and social media. We will then host two community planting days at Rhyll, Phillip Island, generating community stewardship of the local mangrove environment.

Coastal Butterfly Conservation through Community Engagement

Butterfly citizen science projects are an invaluable way to engage communities. There is little known about coastal butterfly communities in Victoria, despite coastal habitats being an important stronghold for vulnerable species. With a strong community engagement focus, the Threatened Species Conservancy will survey coastal habitats around Apollo Bay to assess coastal butterfly communities. This will: build an understanding of the management needs for coastal butterfly communities; assist local nurseries in plant selection for revegetation projects that will enrich coastal environments; and plant an indigenous butterfly ‘demo’ garden in a public community space.

Queenscliffe Coastal Weed Removal Program

Swan Bay Environment Association has been involved in removal of coastal weeds in the Borough of Queenscliffe (BoQ), in association with Bellarine Catchment Network (BCN), for a number of years. To increase the effectiveness of this program this project will:

1. Increase the number of volunteers contributing.

2. Increase the frequency of weeding at focal points in Pt Lonsdale and Queenscliff from monthly to weekly.

3. Conduct experiments to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of weed removal.

4. In conjunction with the BoQ and BCN, establish a committee to coordinate weeding in Queenscliff based partly on GIS based weed maps.

Controlling Boneseed at Harmers Haven —a Weed of National Significance

This project seeks to assertively manage and control the invading weed Boneseed (Chrysanthemoides monilifera) at Harmers Haven. Boneseed is a Weed of National Significance (WONS). It is regarded as one of the worst weeds in Australia because of its invasiveness, potential for spread, and economic and environmental impacts. Boneseed has become an aggressive invader of Victorian coastal foreshores. The Yallock-Bulluk Marine and Coastal Park, of which Harmers Haven’s rare regional remnant vegetation is a significant asset for all Victorians, needs to be protected from WONS such as Boneseed in order to maintain high biodiversity values within the Coastal Park.

St Kilda Breakwater Penguin-Proof Plant Guard Trial

St Kilda breakwater penguins needing nesting material pull up new plants before they establish secure roots. Construction of 12 ‘penguin-proof plant guards’ in October 2022 will enable ‘late spring’ and ‘early autumn’ indigenous plantings within penguin-proof guards and an equivalent number of unguarded plants.

Middle Park beach is subject to erosion by rip currents generated by waves passing around St Kilda breakwater, necessitating beach renourishment every 7-10 years. This project will plant Knobby Club-rush (Ficinia nodosa) and Coast Speargrass (Austrostipa stipoides) in the existing dune.

Hoodie Who? Raising the Awareness of Pre-schoolers to Hooded Plovers

The Hooded Plover is a vulnerable beach nesting bird that breeds on our ocean beaches. Our group protects their nests and chicks with portable fences and signs. This project will provide early childhood educators with information and resources to promote Hooded Plover awareness in 4 to 9 year old children; focusing on the recognition of the portable protective management that we use. We will provide digital and paper resources for teachers to support children’s learning, promoting positive behaviour change through information, dramatic play and activities. In addition, we will produce re-usable corflute signs that promote public awareness of chicks on beaches.

Totally Wild

Merrivale Community Association hosts an annual event, which has been dubbed the Sustainable Scarecrow Trail. This interactive community exhibition encourages residents to create and display scarecrows made of repurposed materials found around the home. This year our theme is ‘Totally Wild’. This theme is centred around beach clean-up days along Warrnambool wild coast precinct, storing marine debris on land and hosting education workshops. These workshops will educate people about our marine debris issues and allow people to use these materials to make their own ‘sustainable scarecrow’ to be included in the trail.

Surf Beach Sunderland Bay Coastal Reserve Interpretive Trail Signage

Interpretive signage and interactives will be placed at Surfies Point and along the boardwalk to Sunderland Bay to help locals and visitors understand and appreciate: indigenous cultural heritage; unique coastal geomorphology; biodiversity values of local flora and fauna; threats caused by rabbits; and actions being taken by Surf Beach Sunderland Bay Coastcare Group and Phillip Island Nature Parks (PINP), such as protecting the area via a rabbit proof fence. Community education and engagement will be facilitated through QR codes on signs linked to webpage information e.g., volunteer working bees, citizen science projects, monitoring using photo points and how to reduce the threat of rabbits.

"What Lives Under the Water -  Gippsland Lakes"

Fishcare East Gippsland (Fishcare EG) deliver sustainable fishing workshops to the local primary schools, secondary schools, and the wider community that focus on: fishing regulations for the local fish species; fish handling; and hook removal. Fishcare EG has identified that the local schools are looking for additional educational information regarding local native fish habitats that aligns with their curriculum. This project will create a new educational workshop that delivers key messages about the different fish habitats within the Gippsland Lakes and the importance of healthy habitats to individual native fish species and the threats of pest species.

Fawthrop Lagoon, Leywhollot, Estuarine Community Education Project

This project’s priority is to value add to the preliminary awareness raised about this important estuarine community by building on our previous work at this site. Adjunct endemic plantings and related additional educational material will both include community engagement. Previously focused on revegetation with endemic species, this project builds on the interest generated by the Nature Trail Brochure we produced for the area through the development of a children's version and an indigenous food and fibre brochure. These will be designed to highlight this area's natural attributes and provide passive recreational engagement to all ages and abilities.

Discovery Days Building Community Capacity

This project will support the establishment of a series of on-ground Discovery Days for families with the aim of raising awareness about environmental rehabilitation and protection of the McCrae foreshore. Beginning with a Foreshore Walk with a local indigenous person and a Bush Art Day. Activities will include: learning about the history of the McCrae area; how indigenous people care/d for country; bush foods; how plants were/are used for making implements; the importance of re-establishing coastal vegetation indigenous to McCrae; and Bush Art weaving. The grant will also support continued stewardship of an area revegetated under a previous Coastcare grant.

Get Involved! Westernport's Special Worlds and how to Protect them

This project will provide inspiring information to interested community members and encourage volunteering to protect Westernport Bay and coastal areas. This project will create an engaging 20-minute video that provides up-to-date and interesting information on the unique ecosystems of Westernport Bay’s marine and coastal life and habitat, its many uses and benefits, and current threats. It will also provide ‘What can I do?” information on individual citizen science tools and resources, further reading, and highlight local environmental group contacts for hands-on and all-abilities volunteering work. We will promote and launch the video through social media and an event as well as sharing the video with other groups.

A Salty Subject: Ecology of the Endangered Plant Lepidium desvauxii

Lepidium desvauxii, Bushy Peppercress, is a rare plant restricted to fragmented coastal wetlands in Victoria; the species is listed under the Flora & Fauna Guarantee Act as Endangered. Currently little is known of the ecology of this species, and there is no Recovery Plan.

This project will investigate the ecology, physiology, and distribution of L. desvauxii in three disjunct populations in Gippsland, Victoria. The project will lead to a greater understanding of this species and its role in the ecosystem. The results may contribute to the development of a robust Recovery Plan and inform future conservation and restoration actions.

Thunder Point Coastal Reserve Conservation Project

This project will involve works in revegetation and invasive flora and fauna control, which all pose ongoing threats to the area. This project will also further enhance the continuing seabird biodiversity monitoring efforts on Middle Island, especially with regards to breeding populations of little penguins and short-tailed shearwaters, which in recent years have suffered decimation resulting from canid predation. Through these actions, we aim to restore the environment to a more natural state and involve the community in citizen science, thereby continuing to establish and deepen Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network’s relationships with various stakeholders.

Learning to (coast) care for Merricks Beach

This project will create educational marine-based materials for locals and school children. These materials will cover a broad range of local plant species in the area, issues and challenges and what locals can do to help and how to volunteer. The project will deliver these educational topics through social media, a walk and talk tour, tree planting and beach clean ups.

Rehabilitation and Revegetation of the Coastal Environment at the QCYC

The project aims to support the rehabilitation and re-vegetation of disturbed areas of the Queenscliff Cruising Yacht Club (QCYC) through the planting of endemic plant species. The planting forms part of the remediation works on the causeway and lease boundary batter which integrates with a native vegetation environment. The planting will be undertaken by QCYC volunteers and plants will be staked and guarded initially for protection from browsing animals.

Plant Numerous Small Spaces

This project will continue the indigenous vegetation program of Beleura Cliff. There are many areas of modestly sloping woody weeds (Polygala and Boneseed especially) that we don't want to clear in one hit. A large bare area invites erosion on a slope. This project will treat weeds in smallish areas (about 5m x 5m) and then revegetate them. In future years, our group will tackle the areas in between these small areas. The overall aim is to increase the area with a viable over-storey with no or few woody weed species present.

Ongoing Foreshore Habitat Restoration/Enhancing Scout Understanding of Site

Progressing 18 years of ongoing restoration in 3.4 hectares of foreshore habitat (Vulnerable and/or Endangered Ecological Vegetation Classes or EVCs) this project will involve skilled bush regenerators in restoring steep areas. Work will involve spraying and manual removal of re-emerging woody weeds, scrambler weeds and annual weeds and then planting indigenous species on the areas treated in 2021. The project will also deliver new foreshore signage and education session for scouts.

Flinders MPNP Coastal Rehabilitation Community Engagement Project

This Bushland Regeneration Project is an extension of work undertaken along the coastline between West Head and King Street since 2004. Work has involved woody and herbaceous weeding allowing regeneration of local native flora with strategic planting, particularly of grasses. This project will extend our work further toward Double Creek whilst continuing ongoing maintenance in previously treated and planted areas. Funds will allow us to continue to engage our longstanding contractor.

Bottles Overboard

Foreign bottles and packaging discarded from passing international ships are regularly collected off South West beaches. This project addresses this issue through:

1) Education and public awareness of foreign marine debris using social media platforms.

2) Collecting, auditing, and recording the types of foreign bottles washing up on our shores.

3) Engaging Narrawong and Portland beach walkers to join the ‘Bottles Overboard’ project.

4) Developing of a user-friendly identity kit that downloads as a PDF.

5) Collating data into a report to engage relevant stakeholders on appropriate source reduction.

6) Creating a campaign strategy to address the problem.

Phillip Island Great Victorian Fish Counts

This project will deliver four Great Victorian Fish Count events at Phillip Island and design and purchase shirts for participants in the 17th Great Victorian Fish Count (FishCount). Phillip Island contains internationally significant wetlands, seals, whales, dolphins and plenty of fish. However, few FishCounts have documented its amazing fish. We will engage with local groups and Melbourne’s biggest online snorkelling community to recruit volunteers for the FishCount on Phillip Island in 2022 and into the future. Snorkellers count fish using identification slates, the data collected is entered into BioCollect and compiled into an annual report provided to marine managers throughout the state.

Phillip Island Land Alliance

The Phillip Island Land Alliance (PILA) is a collaborative group of twelve community based environmental, land and coastal care groups, each with long and sustained beneficial works supporting Phillip Island environmental repair, restoration. PILA will tackle common issues and threats and extend to the wider community who live and work here. PILA seek to form effective alliance governance, structure and goals through four workshops in 2022-23. This will provide immediate opportunities for information exchange between members and public access to environmental information through a collaborative PILA website.

Development of a Group Strategic Plan for Future Volunteer Capacity

With the announcement of the Prom sanctuary, Wilsons Promontory National Park is at an exciting point in time. As the local Friends group, Friends of the Prom (FoTP), is looking to position itself to take advantage of the many opportunities which will be created by this important project. In order to best meet the future needs of the FoTP, we are seeking the assistance of a professional facilitator to guide our group in discussion on devising a group strategic plan. Key to these discussions will be the need to improve volunteer diversity, and encouraging volunteers into key governance roles.

Volunteer Safety, Recognition and Acknowledgment

Our 100 volunteers put in over 4,000 hours each year in maintaining the Great South West Walk (GSWW). This includes coastal erosion control, revegetation, education, signage, and ensuring the track is keep in a standard so that it can be enjoyed by people of diverse abilities and fitness levels. Without the volunteers the track would not exist and attracting and retaining them is a key objective in the organisation. This project will provide a standardised PPE work uniform which identifies our volunteers as a GSWW volunteer so that they can be safe, identify as part of a team and take pride in their volunteer activity.

Supporting Marine and Coastal Volunteers

This project will support the local Warrnambool community and volunteers to continue clean-up efforts and contribute data to the Australia Marine Debris Initiative. Marine debris is a major environmental issue and while there are many committed community groups and individuals in the local area who undertake beach and estuary clean-ups, the data from these efforts are not always being captured and therefore their efforts are not being measured or monitored to determine the source of the litter and effectiveness of the clean-ups. This project will build on the existing datasets from the local area and include new data collection and action planning that will be replicable and useful in future projects.

Marengo coastal rehabilitation and community workshops

Apollo Bay Ocean Care (ABOC) is a newly established conservation, education and citizen science group based in the southern Otways. This grant will support workshops on shell identification, seaweed identification, fish identification and Indigenous cultural use of the area as well as efforts to support and maintain coastal biodiversity through revegetation, environmental weed control and rubbish collection around the Marengo Reefs Marine Sanctuary. Our group will conduct beach shell surveys, and develop marine identification booklets for the community to use while snorkeling at Marengo Reefs MS.

Washed Up: citizen science research, education, information and communications

This project aims to educate the public about our localised marine debris issues and communicate the work of Beach Patrol 3280-3284. Our marine debris stories will be communicated through videos, infographics, and reports. Our group has uploaded data for over 1,000 beach clean-ups since 2017. This has generated detailed records of 300,000+ plastic items providing a unique 36-month data set.

Fostering Saltmarsh Habitat in the Breamlea Flora and Fauna Reserve

The purpose of this project is to address an invasive weed threat to the Breamlea Saltmarsh and engaging as many residents as possible in understanding and implementing a solution.

#stoptheNPseastars

To spread awareness on the Northern Pacific sea stars and their damage to the Bay we aim to educate people on its identification and compare native sea star species with the physical appearance of the Northern Pacific sea stars. As a consequence we hope to prevent the death of our native species. We are also promoting EarthCare St Kilda’s removal program.

Reducing Pest Pressures on Corinella Foreshore Reserve

This Project will reduce pest plant infestations and pest animal grazing pressures on the significant RAMSAR and marine coastline of Corinella. This will enhance the habitat viability for threatened flora and fauna species, remove erosion pressures cause by rabbits and weed species and protect environmentally and culturally significant sites from disturbance.

Revealing the habits of Port Phillip Bay’s iconic spider crabs

Spider crabs (Leptomithrax gaimardii) form massive aggregations within Port Phillip Bay (PPB), are an important ecotourism attraction, and may help regulate introduced pests (e.g. Northern Pacific seastars). Time-lapse cameras will be deployed to obtain digital images at different known spider crab aggregation sites. Citizen scientists will analyse the data and this will be correlated with environmental factors to allow us to understand the factors triggering the aggregations.

Weeds Be Gone

Our goal is to preserve and protect the natural values of the Eagle Point Conservation Reserve and surrounds. A critical goal of the Eagle Point Landcare Coastcare Group strategy management plan is to effectively manage weeds.

Habitat rehabilitation on French Island's South coast

Prior to being grazed the south coast of French Island was a pristine environment with indigenous species growing profusely. Since the late 1980s, Parks Victoria have negotiated with landowners to fence the coastal strip to exclude livestock. This project will extend on from the previously restored areas by undertaking weed control and replanting of indigenous species along the South Coast.

Supporting the Swamp Skink and Coast Banksia Woodland 2021-2022

This project aims to support threatened flora and fauna species Swamp Skink (Lissolepis coventryi) and Coast Banksia Woodland and to assist in the mitigation of coastal erosion at the mouth of Chinaman’s Creek in Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula. Project works include weed control, infill revegetation and dune erosion control planting, and reinstatement of exclusion fencing to reduce access to the mouth of Chinamans Creek.

Sorrento Foreshore Rehabilitation Project

This project aims to enhance the iconic Sorrento Foreshore by addressing the proliferation of environmental noxious, mostly woody, weeds and rubbish as well as revegetation to further enhance the species diversity of the site and protect the fragile dune headland.

Living on the Edge Reimagined

Following establishment of Barwon Bluff Marine Sanctuary in 2002, Friends of the Bluff, Barwon Heads developed the Living on the Edge website (www.barwonbluff.com.au) and educational CD Rom. These have been widely utilised as tools for raising community awareness of the values of the Marine Sanctuary. This project will ensure that the website continues to meet its purpose by restoring full functionality to the website and updating content after consultation with local community, schools and with agency partners and traditional owners groups.

Community stewardship - acting to protect Hooded Plovers in the West

The project will work in conjunction with community, BirdLife Australia and land managers to address major threats impacting Hooded Plover habitats in western Victoria. It will carry out critical nest site protection to reduce the impacts of human recreation, at sites between Warrnambool and Yambuk though a Site Protector Mentorship program to increase capacity and improve response times for nest protection in addition to weed management.

Diverse Communities: Sea, Look and Learn Program

Sea, Look and Learn is targeted to students and their families who don’t usually have any connection with Port Phillip Bay. On-water, marine focussed excursions are provided to 600 marginalised community members from asylum seeker groups and culturally diverse schools. On Kororoit Creek they will take part in tree planting, water testing and habitat surveys. At Jawbone Marine Sanctuary they will take part in curriculum activities designed to build their knowledge of the marine environment, and conduct surveys using a range of scientific methods.

Engaging community to manage overabundant urchins at Ricketts Point MS

Overabundant native urchin reduction in RPMS by MCRP and other qualified community members with assistance from VNPA SCUBA leaders and commercial divers, overseen by Parks Victoria.

Protecting the ecosystems and biodiversity of the McCrae foreshore

As well as continued stewardship in maintaining established sites, the project will restore and protect a dune area subject to active erosion and vulnerable to inundation through weed removal, mulching and revegetation.

Restoring understorey diversity in endangered Grassy Woodland

Grassy Woodland is an endangered Ecological Vegetation Class in the Gippsland Plains Bioregion. Small, fragmented patches have generally lost most of their understorey wildflowers and are subject to weed invasion.
This project will undertake weed control to restore the native grassy understorey of native vegetation and revegetate the sites with locally rare wildflowers. Wildflowers will be propagated in a seed production area (SPA) we will establish to reduce the need for wild collecting by producing high viability seed in a controlled nursery environment.

Interpretation & Conservation Package: Fossil Beach Mornington

Increased public interest and visitation at the Fossil Beach Historic Area requires interpretative tools to assist the four pre-existing information signs in the precinct. This will assist site protection, improve visitor safety, plus increase public awareness of the site's significant features for future conservation purposes.

Ocean Plastic Pollution Education and Prevention Strategies

This project is one aspect of the Resource Smart Schools Program and will focus on waste management within the coastal zone with the aim of reducing student and community impact on the natural environment.
The project includes incursions focussing on ocean pollution, plastic pollution prevention strategies including waste management and waste repurposing; and an onsite recycling collection station.

Scenic Estate Erosion Remediation and Vegetation Improvement

Scenic Estate Reserve (SER) is a newly established conservation reserve on Phillip Island. This project will provide an opportunity to assess current threats by mapping weeds and outlining a set of recommendations to prioritise on ground works. Revegetation works to complement existing plantings including re-establishing Moonah woodland and the implementation of erosion control measures will also be undertaken.

The Rye Seaside Scavenge

Seaside Scavenge is a grassroots environmental organisation which believes that our unsustainable consumption of the earth's resources is polluting the environment and contributing to climate change.
This project will deliver a waste education event where litter collected by participants from Rye beach and foreshore is sorted and becomes a currency in a pop-up market to purchase pre-loved clothes and other goods that have been donated by the local community. The event will also include workshops and talks from local groups working in waste reduction and environmental conservation. The litter collected at the event will be sorted and recorded in the Tangaroa Blue national database of marine debris.

2021 Tambo Bluff War on Weeds

Tambo Bluff is home to a remnant littoral rainforest. Tambo Bluff Landcare Coastcare has reduced weed biomass by > 90% following 28 years of work. Funding is sought in order to support volunteer weeding efforts by having a contractor following up in mid/late 2022 to treat any re-emerging invasive weeds.

Protection & restoration of the coastal foreshore at Andersons Inlet

This project will deliver the planting 500 mangrove seedlings along the southern foreshore of Anderson Inlet to mitigate erosion, conserve and enhance habitat for biodiversity and store carbon. A permanent interpretative sign, new webpage and community information session will raise awareness of the role mangroves play in a healthy coastal ecosystem. Monthly water monitoring will produce data to identify potential impacts on mangrove health and establish benchmarks for future water monitoring programs.

Restoration Plantings at Grahams Wetlands Project

The Restoration at Grahams Wetlands Project will deliver restoration and shoreline erosion plantings, citizen science monitoring, community engagement events, use communication tools to further educate and raise awareness of the value of the saltmarsh ecosystem, revive the Friends of Werribee South, and seek to build capacity for ongoing work in coast care in partnership with various stakeholders.

Sea Spurge Removal at Kennett River

Revegetation and weed control on the dune system at Kennett River by community volunteers.

Small numbers making a big difference

With more than 20 years of planting along the Mitchell River, Bairnsdale Urban Landcare Group (BULGInc) has worked hard to remove exotic woody weeds (predominately Poplar species) and revegetated our urban Mitchell River frontage. To support this work, we would like to purchase a BULGInc trailer, customised for transporting water, plants, mulch and our group's gear. We would also like to purchase more group owned revegetation and weed control gear. We will also purchase 300 indigenous plants to infill and improve biodiversity and to assist our established sites become more resilient to weed infestation.

Walk for a cause: Bushwalkers helping conserve coastal flagships

In Victoria, there are vast stretches of coastal habitat that are remote and only accessible via walking trails. The threatened beach-nesting Hooded Plover (Thinornis cucullatus) and coastal heath-dwelling Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus) have been identified as species where data is lacking in important parts of their range. Tailored training will be provided to several bushwalking/hiking clubs on identification of these species and how to safely monitor them. The data collected by these groups will be used to improve habitat and mitigate threats.

Building a network of Reef Life Survey divers in Victoria

This project builds volunteer community skills and knowledge in coastal and marine biodiversity monitoring and provides surveys of current biodiversity and resource condition in priority coastal areas of Port Phillip Bay and surrounding reefs for 2022 and 2023.

Restoring the biodiversity of the Ventnor Beach Rd Foreshore Reserve

Ventnor Coastcare Association Inc (VCCA) operating on Phillip Island, aims to: 1. restore and conserve the biodiversity of the Ventnor Beach Rd Foreshore Reserve, an increasingly popular, biodiverse, coastal and marine environment; 2. increase, diversify, strengthen and retain our volunteer base; and 3. build community capacity, to make better environmental decisions and respond more effectively to the challenges of our changing climate.

Snorkeling with Marine Scientists

This project will harness social media to recruit and engage volunteers though a partnership with ‘Snorkelling Melbourne Victoria’. Training of VNPA staff as snorkel instructors will allow volunteers to participate safely in marine citizen science events including The Great Victorian Fish Count (GVFC) and the Sea Slug Census (SSC). Education and engagement materials including videos will also be produced to improve volunteer recruitment.

Youth volunteering in the Melbourne Sandbelt

Westgate Biodiversity is partnering with Bayside Intrepid Landcare to diversify our volunteer base by engaging diverse, young people in coastal volunteering, with a strong focus on training and capacity building. This project combines trials of new salt marsh plant propagation techniques at our fully equipped nursery, with on-ground rehabilitation work at the remnant coastal saltmarsh of Westgate Park.